Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

26-May-2001 -- After starting out very early, I drove west on I-70 from Denver for about 2 hours and exited onto highway 131 at Wolcott. About 40 miles north, just north of Toponas, is a turnoff west on county road 3B. Taking this leads into forest road 910 in the White River National Forest. The gate at the forest boundary was closed to keep out motorized traffic, due to elk calving in the area. This was fine with me. I was ready to hoof it and had the place to myself. I started walking at about 8:00 a.m. The weather was sunny and warm.

I hiked down forest road 910 west to 915, which I took south to Harper Reservoir. After about 4 miles the roads in the direction of the confluence were running out, so I started bushwhacking. I went through dense forests of evergreen and aspen trees, and slogged through patches of snow a few feet deep. I went over a ridge and down to a tributary of Sunnyside Creek, where the landscape opened up with meadows. With all the recent snow melt, it was running pretty full. Beavers were active in the area and had built a couple of dams and a lodge. If they were around, they were hiding since I didn't see any of them. I went up the other side of the creek bank and down a slope through some more mixed evergreen/aspen forest and aspen groves. After about a mile of bushwhacking I reached the confluence point at the edge of another large clearing. It was about 10:00 a.m.

The first picture shows the area of the confluence point. At the base of the middle tree is an area bordered by a couple of downed trees, and this is where I found the confluence. You may be able to make out the GPS on a log at the base of the middle tree. This view is looking to the north, the direction I came from.

The next four pictures show views from the confluence to the north, east, south, and west. Looking south, you can see the clearing that the confluence is next to. If you walk about 50 feet from the confluence into the clearing, you get a terrific view to the southeast across the Sunnyside Creek drainage. That view is in picture 6.

After enjoying this spot for awhile, I headed back the way I came and got back to the gate at about 1:00 p.m. I then started driving to the intersection of 41N 107W.